Features

Servo Drives

ADVANCED Motion Controls (Camarillo, CA) introduced the AZBH10A4 and AZBD10A4 micro-sized analog plug-in brushless servo drives that add Hall Velocity mode and Duty Cycle mode capabilities to the μZ series. The drives are designed...

Electronic Valves

Clippard Instrument Laboratory (Cincinnati, OH) introduced the DV-3 Minimatic® electronic 3-way valves that use a patented valving principle. The valves are suited for applications across numerous industries, and are...

Brushless Torque Motors

Allied Motion (Buffalo, NY) released the Megaflux MFH170i series of 170-mm (6.7-in) diameter housed brushless torque motors. The series is comprised of the 170 series brushless torque motor, a digital servo drive, and a...

Products of Tomorrow

The technologies NASA develops don’t just blast off into space. They also improve our lives here on Earth. Life-saving search-and-rescue tools, implantable medical devices, advances in commercial aircraft safety,...

IonoSTAGE Ensures Accuracy of Pilots’ GPS

NASA Technology To permit safe and reliable aircraft navigation over North America using the Global Positioning System (GPS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed the Wide Area...

Product of the Month

ZF Electronics Corp., Pleasant Prairie, WI, announced CHERRY energy-harvesting products that include an energy harvesting generator, as well as a snap-action micro-switch and rocker switch. The energy-harvesting generator...

High-Performance Data Acquisition on USB

A common belief among engineers is that in order to get the best performance, a PC-based data acquisition module must plug into the PCI bus. Properly implemented, however, a data acquisition module can...

System Tests Flight Control of Dream Chaser Spacecraft

DynoLAB™ data acquisition and control system SAKOR Technologies Okemos, MI 517-332-7256 www.sakor.com SAKOR Technologies has supplied a test system to Southwest Research Institute®...

Ion Thruster System Powers Spacecraft to Deep-Space Destinations

Ion thruster system and power processing units Aerojet Rocketdyne Sacramento, CA 916-355-4000 www.rocket.com Aerojet Rocketdyne is developing NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon...

Hyperspectral Sensing for Defense and Security Applications

The successful exploitation of hyperspectral imaging sensors depends on the availability of accurate and complete spectral signature libraries. Coupled with the appropriate spectral...

3D Machine Vision Using Laser Triangulation

Applications for 3D machine vision are rapidly expanding in a variety of industries for several reasons. The first is that vision systems can lower production costs by increasing yields and/or...

Two-Axis Gear-Drive Gimbal

AMG-GR gear-driven motorized gimbals from Aerotech (Pittsburgh, PA) provide economical, high-accuracy elevation- over-azimuth positioning. The AMG-GR standard circular cells range from 100 mm to 300 mm in diameter....

Scan System

SCANLAB AG (Puchheim, Germany) has introduced a new high-end scan system, called excelliSCAN, that utilizes galvo scanners with ultra-precise digital angle sensors and a completely new SCANahead servo control to enable dynamic laser...

Laser Diode

The GPL 105 series laser diode module system from BEA Lasers’ (Elk Grove Village, IL) includes a 3/8” NPT-threaded housing with mounting hardware and a plug-in USB-type power supply. Cable connector length is 36” and available...

SWIR Camera

The XEVA-2.35-320 TE4 from Xenics (Leuven, Belgium), a thermoelectrically cooled infrared camera features T2SL infrared detection technology and delivers superb performance in the 1.0 to 2.35 μm wavelength region for hyperspectral...

Fiber Optic Cleaning Tools

MicroCare Corporation (New Britain, CT) has introduced the newest additions to its STICKLERS® family of fiber optic cleaning tools. Sticklers® CleanClicker™ push-to-clean tools contain more than 750 cleaning...

Kimberly Hambuchen, Deputy Project Manager, Human Robotics System Project, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Kim Hambuchen is currently building user interfaces for Vakyrie, a six-foot-two, 286-pound humanoid robot. The two-legged Valkyrie...

Drive System Software

Festo (Hauppauge, NY) introduced PositioningDrives software for designing single-axis drive systems. Engineers input application requirements and the software details the information necessary to create a Festo component...

Planetary Gearboxes

Pittman Motors (Harleysville, PA) offers the PLG24, PLG42K, PLG42S, PLG52, and PLG63 planetary gearboxes available with Pittman brush and brushless DC motors. The PLG planetary gearboxes deliver high-torque loads and are...

Rotary Encoder

The Multi Wheel Encoder from Elma Electronic (Fremont, CA) is a miniature rotary encoder that includes an illuminated 8+1 joystick, enabling control using one finger. The encoder features Hall effect sensed incremental encoder...

Digital Load Cell

HBM (Marlborough, MA) introduced the FIT7A digital load cell that enables machines to make up to 180 weighings per minute. The load cell features accuracy class C4 per OIML R60, and a maximum scale interval factor Y of up to...

Tabletop Robot

Universal Robots (Odense, Denmark) introduced the UR3 tabletop robot that weighs 24.3 pounds and has a payload of 6.6 pounds, 360-degree rotation on all wrist joints, and infinite rotation on the end joint. The flexible,...

Angle Sensors

Novotechnik, U.S. (Southborough, MA) introduced the Vert-X 2400 compact angle sensors that convert rotational angle into a voltage output. The sensors are available in single and fully redundant versions; diameter of the housing...

Five-Axis Machining

The VMX30UHSi, VMX42HSRTi, VMX84SWi, VMX60SWi, and VMX60Ui from Hurco (Indianapolis, IN) are 5-axis machines for traditional 3-axis parts with features on all five sides. The VMX42HSRTi has a swivel-head design with a direct...

Part Gripper

The EGP 25 electric small part gripper from SCHUNK (Morrisville, NC) weighs 110 g and has a stroke of 3 mm per finger. The gripping force can be adjusted on two stages, and maximum gripping force is 40 N. The gripper can handle...

Hydraulic Motors

Dayton Lamina™ (Dayton, OH) offers low-speed/high-torque, high-speed/low-torque hydraulic motors that feature instant forward and reverse. Six motors are available with a torque range from 0 to 656 in-lbs. and speeds from 0...

Controller

The iQ-F Series compact controller from Mitsubishi Electric Automation (Vernon Hills, IL) is based on the FX Series and offers synchronized motion control, data logging, and security features. The controller provides embedded...

Rotary Vane Pumps

Kurt J. Lesker (Jefferson Hills, PA) offers KJLC RV Series rotary vane pumps that feature an anti-suckback mechanism to prevent oil from back-flowing in the event of accidental shutdown, power failure, etc. A pressurized oil...

Linear Stage

Bell-Everman (Goleta, CA) offers the SLS Light sealed linear stage that keeps contamination such as manufacturing debris, particulate, or liquid contaminants outside of the stage housing. The stage measures 80 × 120 mm, and has...